It wasn’t actually a miracle!

By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net

For all things in life, if you want to succeed in anything, first of all you need to work hard and the second most important is to find the right way to take care your business. So, now let’s see how Besiktas managed to end up this season with three cups in their hands. The last one -but not least- was the Turkish championship, a title they regained after 37 years!

And due to the fact they got all the titles they were chasing, we asked the help of two Turkish journalists: Ghokan German from Fanatik.com.tr and Gökhan Türe from haberturk.com in order to find their secret of success. And here is the Top 10 of Besiktas’ triumph.

No1 Ergin Ataman made sure last summer his team would have players who were going to complement each other. He thought his roster as a puzzle which had to have every piece in the right place to have the right result.

No2 Ataman’s priority was to build a great group of friends, before he builds a great team. He did everything in his power so everybody can feel happy and capable of everything (he knows how to boost a player’s confidence, all right). And that’s how he got the most of everybody. Carlos Arroyo had one of his best seasons, same goes for Zoran Erceg and David Hawkins etc…

No3 While he was working on having everybody feel content, Ataman didn’t cross the line. He managed to create with them a relationship, which was built on respect. They could feel him as their brother, they could trust him, but there was a clear boundary when it came to who was responsible of making the decisions.

No4 It’s not easy to have limited rotation and at the same time to have everybody feel happy with their role! And at first 7-8 players didn’t seem enough to make Besiktas successful. But, as time went by, it was obvious everyone had his define role and all together could work in a perfect way.

No5 Ataman had an excellent support from the technical stuff. Yagizer Ulug, the assistant coach did a great job of helping the head coach, in crucial times. Everybody worked 24/7 for the team. As Ataman admitted at the press conference, after a final against Anadolu Efes “I changed our defense plan, to zone defense, after I received an SMS from Ulug, late at night”. Also, Aydin Demirözü, the responsible for the physical condition of the players, did a great job with getting the players to their maximum level, at the right time.

No6 When you have on your team guys with the abilities of David Hawkins, Carlos Arroyo, Pops Mensah Bonsu, Zoran Erceg and Ersin Dagli (Erwin Dudley), their great motivation for success and their personalities and you combine them with the talent and the desire of Mehmet Yagmur, Serhat Çetin, Baris Hersek, then you have almost everything. And then… Deron Williams came in the picture.

No7 Besiktas signed the NBA All Star player hopping he would stay with them till the end of the season, but they saw him leaving for the NBA, after the end of the lock out. During his stay, Williams became a real part of the team, in every possible way. More over, he helped Ataman to… transmit his “thing big” mentality to everybody. And Williams didn’t forget them. For example, he congratulated everybody after they got the championship, with text messages!

No8 When you don’t have financial stability, you cannot focus on your job. And that was Besiktas’ case for the last 5-6 years. That was the reason they had strikes (they didn’t go to practices) and many things to disturb their peace of mind. This year, Milangaz made sure they can do their job, without having to worry about their money. And that was a first for Besiktas!

No9 This year the community -and the fans- understood really quick what Besiktas was trying to build (Deron Williams was also a great factor for this) and they reacted immediately. It was the first time Besiktas was playing with 15.000 fans in “Abdi Ipekci”. They even had two sold outs.

No10 Experts say the eminently element for a team’s desire is rebounds. Besiktas manage to beat them all and they showed exactly how “hungry” they were, for success. They played very simple basketball, but everybody knew exactly what he had to do to help all the others look better -and at the end of the road, their team a champion!

And the best part of all of these is nearly all the players have contracts for next season. They also have the option to go somewhere else and everybody is waiting to see if Milangaz is going to stay as a sponsor, to decide what they will do. This is something they are going to learn this weekend!